The demand for faster delivery of high-quality software – or “Quality at Speed” – requires companies to seek solutions in Agile, Continuous Integration (CI), and DevOps methodologies. Test automation is an integral part of these aspects. The latest World Quality Report 2020-2021 suggests that test automation is the biggest bottleneck in delivering quality at Speed as it enables Agile and DevOps to be adopted successfully.
Test automation cannot be achieved without good tools, as they determine how automation is done and whether the benefits of automation can be achieved. Test automation services tools are a critical component in the DevOps toolchain. It will be worth understanding which tools are best suited to capitalize on these trends.
Software Development comprises of activity set related to computer science conventionally used for CDTI, i.e. Create, Develop, Test, and Implement process.
In the Software Development process, software’s from small-scale to large-scale computer programs are built. Farther in the Software Development process, this software’s designed are allocated particular tasks to be performed.
The testing part over here is carried out through Automation Testing to provide more ease to the Software Testing process.
These are the best test automation tools that are believed to better handle the challenges of automation for years to come. The tools included in this list were selected based on the following criteria:
- API and service testing support.
- Provides some analytical and AI / ML functionality
- Popularity and maturity
This list of key tools here is not exhaustive; however, it represents the best mature and popular tools, providing capabilities with AI / ML to address the challenges organizations now face when it comes to delivering quality at Speed.
It can be said that the landscape of software testing tools will continue to develop in 2021. Emerging trends (AI and machine learning, no code, big data, and IoT testing, intense adoption of test automation (especially in agile teams), etc.) will create challenges and opportunities for existing tools and new players to contribute their value to claim the test communities. In addition, to meeting your current needs, your selection of testing tools should focus on potential trends and improvements.
Good Speed and efficiency make automation testing the most important CI / CD enabler. Reducing the manual workload and freeing up QA resources mean that employees are used for other innovative tasks, such as exploratory testing. However, this automated route to continuous delivery depends on choosing the right tools for deployment.
The best automation testing tools for web applications are as follows:
1 Selenium
In addition to automating web browsers, this open-source tool also offers a single interface for testing scripts in various programming languages. Selenium testing is now considered an integral part of CI / CD. It helps bridge the gap between a “successful build” and a “qualitative build”. For a software “build” or development to bridge the gap between success and quality, it must go through a series of quality control tests performed by the appropriate engineers.
2 Apache JMeter
This is an open-source pure Java application that was originally developed for testing web applications. Today it has been expanded to include other test functions, such as functional behavior of load tests and application performance measurement. It is commonly used by developers to test the static and dynamic resources associated with a developed application. This includes resources such as queries, logs, scripts, servers, and files. In this way, the performance of the developed software can be tested under different types of stress.
3 QTP
The QTP or Quick Test Professional, developed by HP or Hewlett Packard, helps in the perfect execution of automated functional tests after the development of a script. This tool uses VBScript or Visual Basic Scripting to automate applications and does not require supervision. Suitable for functional and regression testing, this tool works by comparing the actual result with the expected one, and the executive summary reports the results.
4 Appium
This mobile app testing tool is distributed free of charge, has a UI testing framework and is open source. This automates testing for:
- All native mobile apps are written on iOS, Windows SDK, and Android,
- Hybrid mobile apps with a native container for the web view, and
- Mobile web apps accessible through phone browsers like Chrome, Safari, etc., and also for all built-in Android native browser apps.
5 Load runner
This software test tool, currently owned by HP, is used for testing applications to measure the behavior and performance of the system under load. You can simulate the simultaneous use of application software by thousands of users, record the performance of the key application.